27 – Work, Part 1

Someone asked, “What in the world are you doing in Saudi Arabia?”  I assume they meant, “Good sir, what does your work entail in the Kingdom?”

 

Short and partial answer: I am helping with project management.  That involves lots of spreadsheets, schedules, and nagging emails to remind people of essential tasks they’ve promised to do.  I’ve been involved in project management for a long time, and (mostly) find the stress exhilarating.  [Editor’s note:  Details he finds exhilarating in project management: “How do I solve this problem?”  and  “How can I possibly get this done on time?!?!”]

 

The details must be unbelievably boring to people outside the project.  Could you possibly be interested in this?

page 2

How about this:

And our overall schedule has been completely trashed due to Ramadan and Eid.

 

Ramadan is a full month of the Islamic calendar, and its start depends on the moon.  This year, predictions of a July 9 start were off by one day – Ramadan started on July 8.

 

Devout Muslims fast all day during Ramadan, from their morning prayer (Fajr, about 4:30 am) until the evening prayer (Maghrib, about 7:00 pm).  The evening meal during Ramadan is called Iftar and loosely translates as “second breakfast”.  It’s a big celebratory affair, and I’ve enjoyed several killer buffet Iftars this Ramadan.

The Muslim definition of fasting means no food and no liquids, so it’s a serious undertaking in this heat and scorching sun.  Consequently, work is reduced to 6 hours per day, and our Contractor has shifted to nighttime work in an effort to make things easier.

 

Eid, another Islamic holiday, is the first day of Shawwal, the month following Ramadan, and marks the end of fasting.  I assume there will be feasting, and, as you surely know, I am always ready for feasting.  In practice, Eid is similar to a Stukes Thanksgiving: most people take a few days off work to travel and visit family.

 

The Contractor says 75% of his crews will desert him for a full week at Eid -- without permission.  The Owner has closed his offices Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (August 6, 7, and 8); work will resume on Sunday with the new workweek.  Our company will be closed Thursday.  (What’s the difference, really, if there are no laborers laboring?)

 

Let’s calculate the schedule impact: productivity drops 25% (8-hour days drop to 6-hour ones), laborers work at night, with work areas limited to sites with artificial lighting (another drop in productivity, shall we say 10 percent?), with lower work rates due to no food and no water (another 10%, maybe?), and one entire week of this month will have no work done at all as our laborers go AWOL (that's 25% of the month's total of already-reduced-productivity working hours).  Taking all these factors into consideration, my exemplary engineering education and considerable experience tells me that we ain't gonna get squat finished this month.

 

Oh yeah, our ship from China with three fully-assembled cranes will arrive precisely in the middle of Eid week.  It’s scheduled to berth at 1500 on August 8.  Today, August 6, we believe there is insufficient wharf length to tie her up, and we are absolutely positive there is insufficient rail to offload all three cranes.  [repeated Editor’s note:  Details he finds exhilarating in project management: “How do I solve this problem?”  and  “How can I possibly get this done on time?!?!”]

 

Fear not, loyal reader!  We will get those cranes off the ship.  Our port will open on September 1.  Somehow, some way, we will get things to work out just fine.

Coming Soon!  An exploration of the port’s physical plant!  Stay tuned for this thrill-a-minute episode!